Aviation is one of the most used forms of transportation in the world. On average, there are around 100,000 daily flights originating from approximately 9,000 airports. While air travel is considered to be among the safest forms of travel, there is some risk that a plane may crash. Furthermore, since 1948, eighty-eight commercial airplanes have disappeared during flights, never to be recovered.
Traditional aviation safety involves aircraft monitoring, wherein flight data from instruments is continuously collected and stored. The flight data recorder (FDR), otherwise known as the black box, is one of the most important technologies for aviation safety. A flight data acquisition unit (FDAU)—installed in most modern aircraft—receives various discrete, analog, and digital parameters from several sensors and avionics systems. The data collected by the FDAU are then recorded on the FDR, which is housed in the black box. In the event of an accident, investigators can analyze the data on the black box, which is designed to survive accidents, in order to determine the causes of the accident.
In addition, aircraft use communication protocols which continuously transmit flight data to ground centers for real-time analysis and monitoring. Modern aircraft use Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), which broadcasts information about an aircraft's location, airspeed, and other data to air traffic control displays. Pilots can also receive weather and traffic position information delivered directly to the cockpit through the ADS-B system. However, these safety mechanisms, while extremely useful, are still severely lacking in three ways.
First, data transmission is prohibitively expensive. Transmission must be performed via satellite network, which has limited bandwidth and throughput. Additionally, it is estimated that it would cost billions of dollars to implement continuous flight data streaming across the airline industry, as data transmitters alone can cost up to $100,000 each. Second, data transmission systems are vulnerable to attack. Hackers can already track airplanes with sufficient precision using less than $1,000 worth of equipment. A two-way communication interface such as ADS-B is vulnerable to security breaches from bad actors. The airline industry is concerned about any transmission system that increases the possibility of proprietary and technical information being leaked. Furthermore, pilots are concerned that every instance of a flight will be reviewed with unjustified scrutiny. Third, FDRs record such large amounts of data that they require complex automated analysis and data mining techniques to extract useful information. This imposes significant overhead costs on processing power, especially where low latency is a concern.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.